Page 214 of A Warrior's Fate

To their advantage?

Isla scoffed, though memories of her pondering war burned in the back of her mind. “Io has no reason to attack Deimos.”

Ezekiel lifted his brows, challenging. “Despite its strength and despite serving its purpose in world relations, Io is in a poor position to rule over all of Morai. The Imperial Alpha is too far away for the expanse of territory he wishes to control. He’s losing touch with Tethys, Mimas, and Iapetus. Why do you think he’s entertaining that general? The yappy one who fancies you.”

Eli.

That would make sense. He was the son of Beta Sampson of Iapetus. Bringing him into Io through Isla—or even sending her there—would be a way to build relations, to get a foothold.

Kai snorted at the jab before saying, not questioning, “That’s why they’ve moved in on Charon. Why they have Locke as their puppet.”

Ezekiel nodded. “But Kyran and I feared that wouldn’t be enough for him. That Cassius would want the head and the heart of the continent under his control.”

Kai tensed, and his gaze snapped to the globe on his desk. Where dead at the continent’s center, sat—“You think he’d try to take Mavec.”

“It wouldn’t be surprising if it eventually came to that,” Ezekiel said, picking a piece of lint off his jacket. No look her way, but Isla felt the words directed at her. “It may already be in motion.”

Her stomach bottomed out, and she couldn’t fight the odd sensation of being split in two.

“Your father got wind of it before he passed. Heard the rumblings from the refugees of more frequent visits of Io’s Council, particularly the Imperial Beta, to the territory. Potentially rallying troops…and he discovered something else.” Ezekiel paused, looking directly at each of them before finishing, “They have witches hidden in their prison. An unwitting army.”

“What?” Isla jerked back in her seat. “No, we don’t.”

We.

Both Kai and Ezekiel turned her way, and though she’d expected the pointed look she’d received from the beta, the one she’d gotten from her mate—the slight hurt along with the empathy—she hadn’t been ready for.

She pushed them away. Shoved Io and her family away into the other. For right now, for this conversation, she had to. She was the future Luna of Deimos. Talks such as these would be had. And Io as a political opponent wasn’t the one she’d grown up in and called home. Though that anger, that doubt, rumbled beneath her skin.

She glowered. “And what about the one you’re hiding?”

The world seemed to stop moving.

They hadn’t had a plan to drop the witch on Ezekiel, just that they’d ease into the question. Feel out what he knew, what he’d be willing to tell. If he’d want to hide it, even now, even after the mention of the house. Maybe he had been prepared to, judging by the paling of his face, the tremble that rocked his being.

But he recovered quickly, finding a scowl. “She’s the one who told us. She escaped.”

“Who is she?”

Kai didn’t miss a beat while her mind stumbled to keep up.

She couldn’t filter through the shock, the feelings of—betrayal. Io keeping witches? Planning an attack? Taking Mavec for Charon?

Maybe it was the anger at the confirmation of another secret that helped Kai push forward. To press and press for as much information and take time to break it all down and absorb it, later. Or it was a way to keep Ezekiel off-balance. Give him less time to spin a tale, a lie, in pauses.

“All we knew of her was that fact. We offered her refuge here in exchange for protection, need Io strike.” Ezekiel seemed to steel himself with a breath. “And then she turned on us. Had that dog of hers kill Kyran and Jaden, go for you, and then she disappeared.”

Isla stopped breathing.

Kai may have, too.

“That dog”—the killer.

Silence befell the room again.

A witch had been behind it all. Had been the reason—

“Why would she want us all dead?” Kai’s voice cut through the silence, and Isla couldn’t place the emotion within it. It was hollow, cold, and the closest she imagined she’d ever be to understanding how it had felt that day to wake up and find out his life had changed forever.

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